Evergreen in talks with CKYH Alliance

   The trend of wider cooperation by container carriers may continue with the world’s fourth largest container carrier, Evergreen, saying it is looking at the possibility of creating a new alliance with members of the CKYH Alliance.
   The existing CKYH or “Green” Alliance members are Cosco, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin.
   In a brief statement, a spokesperson said, “Evergreen is continually reviewing its operational options to better serve customers and increase efficiency of its vessel utilization. To this end, we are in negotiation with CKYH to establish a new alliance. As the negotiation is continuing and no agreements have been signed yet, we are unable to confirm whether Evergreen Line will become a new member of the alliance.”
   The Evergreen-CKYH discussions follow last year’s announcements of plans for two major container carrier alliances.
   Last June, the world’s three largest container carriers — Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM — said they plan to form the P3 Network, a vessel-sharing agreement for the three major East-West trades: Asia-Europe, Asia-North America and transatlantic. That proposal is being reviewed by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, and regulators in Europe and China.
   Also last year, the so-called G6 carriers — APL, Hapag Lloyd, Hyundai, MOL, NYK and OOCL — said they would extend their alliance to include the Asia-U.S. West Cost and transatlantic trades as well as the Asia-Europe and Asia-U.S. East Coast.
   The Evergreen statement leaves many questions unanswered — for example, whether the alliance would be global or only include certain trades, as does the P3 and G6.
   According to the Alphaliner Top 100 website, the existing CKYH carriers have owned and chartered tonnage amounting to about 2.11 million TEU globally. Evergreen has a fleet with 865,463 TEU of capacity and has 98 ships on order with a combined capacity of 381,696 TEU, second only to MSC.